Do we have room for one more? Let's find out! I seem to recall we usually have a game like this whereby the drivers and teams are split up into groups, you make a selection (or selections) from each and are awarded the points your selections score. So I've had a go at exactly that format. I appreciate not everyone will completely agree with how the drivers/teams are divided up, but as none of us really know the exact pecking order, let's just agree to disagree in that regard!

How it works: from each group you select one of the names listed, with the exception of the 6th group of drivers where you have to select two. The deadline for selections is the moment FP1 commences in Australia; any made after that will not be accepted. I'll post an update after every race detailing who scored what in that race, plus the overall standings. The groups are as follows:

In addition, across the course of the season every participant has six jokers to use. The way they work is as follows:

The six jokers available are made up of one from each driver group (for the sake of clarity, that would be one from driver group 1; one from driver group 2; one from driver group 3; one from driver group 4; one from driver group 5; and one from driver group 6). There are no jokers available for the four team groups.

Over the course of the season, you can come into this thread and post that you want to use one or more of your jokers for the next race, specify which group and driver, and you'll then receive whatever points they score at that race in addition to the driver you've selected for the season. If you want to, you can select the same driver for your joker as you've picked for the season (so you can use the joker on Hamilton even if you've already selected him). You only get one joker for each group for the season. How you use them is up to you; you could use them all at one race if you wanted, spread them over six races, use two at a race... whatever you fancy. The only requirement is that when you wish to use one or more of your jokers, you post before FP1 commences for the race in which you wish to use them. I'm going to be very strict about this rule.

I'll keep a list of who has used which jokers - I'll probably post it as part of the results after each race so we can all keep tabs on which we have left.

And just to try and avoid any future arguments, here's a little 'What if...?' section:

One of my selections - let's say Ryo Haryanto - is replaced by another driver? Then you will receive any points scored by the replacement up until the point the original selection returns.But what if Haryanto then returned alongside the driver who originally replaced him with Wehrlein being dropped?! Well, aside from making my head hurt a little, you would then revert back to receiving the points for the driver you originally selected (in this case, Haryanto) with the replacement driver now being deemed to have replaced Wehrlein instead. I've selected a driver - say, Max Verstappen - and he replaces another driver - Daniil Kvyat - mid-season? Then you would receive any points scored by Verstappen's replacement as per above. However, if you had also selected Kvyat then you would receive any points Verstappen scored at Red Bull by way of him being Kvyat's replacement. A driver and/or team is excluded from the result of a race? If I've posted the results for the race at this point (and I'll refrain from doing so if there is any doubt about the result) then it would be updated according to the official result.A driver or team I've selected is excluded from the overall standings, such as Schumi in '97 or McLaren in '07? In such a scenario, any points that driver or team has scored will be removed from the overall standings. The rest of the points awarded would be left unaffected, unless the FIA decided to retrospectively change the results, in which case I would update everything here accordingly. I want to change one of my selections? You can't. Your selections are locked in once FP1 begins in Australia.A scenario crops up that hasn't been covered here? That would be just my luck! We would probably put it to a vote and go with the majority.

Do we have room for one more? Let's find out! I seem to recall we usually have a game like this whereby the drivers and teams are split up into groups, you make a selection (or selections) from each and are awarded the points your selections score. So I've had a go at exactly that format. I appreciate not everyone will completely agree with how the drivers/teams are divided up, but as none of us really know the exact pecking order, let's just agree to disagree in that regard!

How it works: from each group you select one of the names listed, with the exception of the 6th group of drivers where you have to select two. The deadline for selections is the moment FP1 commences in Australia; any made after that will not be accepted. I'll post an update after every race detailing who scored what in that race, plus the overall standings. The groups are as follows:

A suggestion if i may, you could give us something like 3 trades where basically you can change up to 3 of your picks during the season. When you change a pick you don't get the points of that driver/team that they already score, but what they will score from there on.

Also maybe balance the point scoring, because if you get the top 2 groups from both drivers and teams then that's it... the rest can't make that much of an impact.

Just my two cents on it. Although you might not want to over-complicate things. Still thanks for making this and deciding to use your time to make a game for us.

Team group 1: MercedesTeam group 2: Red BullTeam group 3: Toro RossoTeam group 4: Haas

Schumacher forever#1 wrote:

Pity a lot of teams will be extremely similar, but I can't think of any way to make them more different.

Perhaps one way of getting more difference between teams, without altering the core of the game, would be to be able to play a "joker". Say everyone can designate a driver from group 6 currently not selected. At one point in the season you can "play" him, and he will pick up extra points just like any other selected driver, but only for, say, the next three GP's. This would add some strategy to the game, without messing up the entries made so far.

Pity a lot of teams will be extremely similar, but I can't think of any way to make them more different.

Perhaps one way of getting more difference between teams, without altering the core of the game, would be to be able to play a "joker". Say everyone can designate a driver from group 6 currently not selected. At one point in the season you can "play" him, and he will pick up extra points just like any other selected driver, but only for, say, the next three GP's. This would add some strategy to the game, without messing up the entries made so far.[/quote]

So far although a lot of the picks have been pretty similar, I can only see one completely duplicated entry. Perhaps that'll happen more if we get an influx of players between now and next Friday but at the moment, I think there is enough variety to leave it as it is.

Saying that, I do like the idea of being able to select an extra driver for the next x races later in the season. Although I'd probably not use driver group 6 as if only two of them are scoring regular points and somebody has already selected them both, they stand to benefit from picking a third driver from that group a lot less than the rest. But perhaps a similar system could work for group 4, or even team group 3. It might be that I introduce such an idea but only allow it to be deployed after a certain point in the season (although I would confirm it is happening before the game begins as if my own team is struggling, it might look a bit suspect if I introduce a rule mid-season that might enable me to catch up a little!)

I really like the joker idea. If I were to implement it, it would look like this however. We get a joker from each driver category for only one race. So there would be six joker cards available to everyone. We can use them during the season, rather than having to pick each driver for each race at the very start.

Eg; For the Hungarian GP, I may choose Verstappen as a joker for that one race predicting that it'll be his highest scoring race. Then I might choose Rosberg for Monaco and so on.

_________________"Always believe you will become the best, but never believe you have done so"

I really like the joker idea. If I were to implement it, it would look like this however. We get a joker from each driver category for only one race. So there would be six joker cards available to everyone. We can use them during the season, rather than having to pick each driver for each race at the very start.

Eg; For the Hungarian GP, I may choose Verstappen as a joker for that one race predicting that it'll be his highest scoring race. Then I might choose Rosberg for Monaco and so on.

I really like the joker idea. If I were to implement it, it would look like this however. We get a joker from each driver category for only one race. So there would be six joker cards available to everyone. We can use them during the season, rather than having to pick each driver for each race at the very start.

Eg; For the Hungarian GP, I may choose Verstappen as a joker for that one race predicting that it'll be his highest scoring race. Then I might choose Rosberg for Monaco and so on.

I really like the joker idea. If I were to implement it, it would look like this however. We get a joker from each driver category for only one race. So there would be six joker cards available to everyone. We can use them during the season, rather than having to pick each driver for each race at the very start.

Eg; For the Hungarian GP, I may choose Verstappen as a joker for that one race predicting that it'll be his highest scoring race. Then I might choose Rosberg for Monaco and so on.

This sounds like a good idea

Sounds like a plan to me

I'm fine with that; the only caveat would be that when using a joker, people could use it on the driver they've already selected if they wish. That way if say, Ricciardo is dominating Kvyat, everyone who selected Ricciardo won't potentially stand to gain less than those who had selected Kvyat.

I would also say any joker selections would have to be declared before FP1 begins.

I really like the joker idea. If I were to implement it, it would look like this however. We get a joker from each driver category for only one race. So there would be six joker cards available to everyone. We can use them during the season, rather than having to pick each driver for each race at the very start.

Eg; For the Hungarian GP, I may choose Verstappen as a joker for that one race predicting that it'll be his highest scoring race. Then I might choose Rosberg for Monaco and so on.

This sounds like a good idea

Sounds like a plan to me

I'm fine with that; the only caveat would be that when using a joker, people could use it on the driver they've already selected if they wish. That way if say, Ricciardo is dominating Kvyat, everyone who selected Ricciardo won't potentially stand to gain less than those who had selected Kvyat.

I would also say any joker selections would have to be declared before FP1 begins.

So the joker can be played on any driver in the group, correct? Just want to confirm.

Loving the sounds of this by the way. Here are my picks - will update with jokers later.

So the joker can be played on any driver in the group, correct? Just want to confirm.

Assuming nobody comes in and has a huge objection towards it, it would work as follows:

Each participant would have six jokers: one from driver group 1, one from driver group 2, one from driver group 3, one from driver group 4, one from driver group 5 and one from driver group 6.

Over the course of the season, you can come into this thread and post that you want to use one of your jokers for the next race, specify which group and driver, and you'll then receive whatever points they score at that race in addition to the driver you've selected for the season. If you want to, you can select the same driver for your joker as you've picked for the season (so you can use the joker on Hamilton even if you've already selected him). You only get one joker for each group for the season. How you use them is up to you; you could use them all at one race if you wanted, spread them over six races, use two at a race... whatever you fancy. Just as long as the post is made before FP1 commences.

So the joker can be played on any driver in the group, correct? Just want to confirm.

Assuming nobody comes in and has a huge objection towards it, it would work as follows:

Each participant would have six jokers: one from driver group 1, one from driver group 2, one from driver group 3, one from driver group 4, one from driver group 5 and one from driver group 6.

Over the course of the season, you can come into this thread and post that you want to use one of your jokers for the next race, specify which group and driver, and you'll then receive whatever points they score at that race in addition to the driver you've selected for the season. If you want to, you can select the same driver for your joker as you've picked for the season (so you can use the joker on Hamilton even if you've already selected him). You only get one joker for each group for the season. How you use them is up to you; you could use them all at one race if you wanted, spread them over six races, use two at a race... whatever you fancy. Just as long as the post is made before FP1 commences.

I think it would be better if this was not allowed.People have already chosen their best picks,and most picks are similar and are likely to score higher than other drivers in the same group(eg: lewis,kimi,alonso etc.,)But , if they are forced to make a different choice than they have already picked , it might lead to different choices.

For eg: Suppose from Group1 , Lewis is dominating , but Nico and Seb are very close. Most people have already chosen Lewis , so if they select Lewis again from the joker card,people end up with similar points.But if they are only allowed Nico or Seb,some might choose Nico,others Seb. This way , they can end up with different points depending on how each driver performs on that day.

Similarly with Group2 , with Kimi,Bottas and Massa. Many have chosen Kimi now , but if they are forced to choose between Bottas or Massa for the joker , it leads to different picks(as the performance difference between Bottas and Massa will be small).

I too think that the option of playing a joker driver who is in your team selection already, is a bit odd.

Also, if you choose Hamilton and Mercedes in your 'team' and then play the Hamilton joker, you're basically getting Hamilton’s points three times. That’s not necessarily a problem, but not very elegant in design either.

But I can understand why you’d want that. The main issue is that driver groups 3 and 5 only have two drivers. A solution could be to give 4 jokers in total, for groups 1, 2, 4 and 6 respectively. Groups 3 and 5 would then be straight up choices between two drivers.

Well one thing I do not want to do, by introducing something like this (especially after a lot of people have made their picks), is punish those who have made the best choices. If there is one driver dominating a particular scoring group then I don't see why anyone who picked him should be disadvantaged in terms of using the joker over those who did not. It isn't a guarantee of extra points after all; I'm sure there will be somebody (hopefully not me!) who barely gets any extra points because when they suffer bad luck when they use their jokers, or simply don't use them very well. And of course, if someone has picked Hamilton and he's dominating, there is no reason they can't pick Vettel at a track they think he/Ferrari will be particularly strong at.

So the joker can be played on any driver in the group, correct? Just want to confirm.

Assuming nobody comes in and has a huge objection towards it, it would work as follows:

Each participant would have six jokers: one from driver group 1, one from driver group 2, one from driver group 3, one from driver group 4, one from driver group 5 and one from driver group 6.

Over the course of the season, you can come into this thread and post that you want to use one of your jokers for the next race, specify which group and driver, and you'll then receive whatever points they score at that race in addition to the driver you've selected for the season. If you want to, you can select the same driver for your joker as you've picked for the season (so you can use the joker on Hamilton even if you've already selected him). You only get one joker for each group for the season. How you use them is up to you; you could use them all at one race if you wanted, spread them over six races, use two at a race... whatever you fancy. Just as long as the post is made before FP1 commences.

Sounds good! Not sure where I stand on the driver duplications, there's both pros and cons on each one.

_________________"Always believe you will become the best, but never believe you have done so"

So the joker can be played on any driver in the group, correct? Just want to confirm.

Assuming nobody comes in and has a huge objection towards it, it would work as follows:

Each participant would have six jokers: one from driver group 1, one from driver group 2, one from driver group 3, one from driver group 4, one from driver group 5 and one from driver group 6.

Over the course of the season, you can come into this thread and post that you want to use one of your jokers for the next race, specify which group and driver, and you'll then receive whatever points they score at that race in addition to the driver you've selected for the season. If you want to, you can select the same driver for your joker as you've picked for the season (so you can use the joker on Hamilton even if you've already selected him). You only get one joker for each group for the season. How you use them is up to you; you could use them all at one race if you wanted, spread them over six races, use two at a race... whatever you fancy. Just as long as the post is made before FP1 commences.

Sounds good! Not sure where I stand on the driver duplications, there's both pros and cons on each one.

Yeah I'm happy with this. Since the jokers are no guarantee of success, I don't think there's much of an issue selecting the same driver for your joker. It's a one-race thing after all.

Okay, since it doesn't seem there is any huge objection to the introduction of a joker system, we will introduce it. I'll edit the first post to include it in the rules and if anybody wants to use one or more of their jokers for Melbourne, they have until FP1 commences to say so in this thread.

I also need to remember to enter my own predictions for the season as I'll be damned if I'm going to run a fantasy game and not enter it myself

So for the jokers, are we picking which one it will be from each group before everything starts, or is it any one driver from any one group chosen at the time the joker for that group is used?

You can decide when and where to use your jokers. The only real rules are that you only get one from each driver group for the season, and that when you want to use one (or more) you have to post that in this thread before FP1 begins for the race in question.

So for the jokers, are we picking which one it will be from each group before everything starts, or is it any one driver from any one group chosen at the time the joker for that group is used?

You can decide when and where to use your jokers. The only real rules are that you only get one from each driver group for the season, and that when you want to use one (or more) you have to post that in this thread before FP1 begins for the race in question.

The first race of the season is always a bit of a learning experience and the same can be said with this update. Rather than just posting the scores, I wanted to break it down into a few sections, including the scores, the joker situation, highlighting someone who had a particularly bad/unlucky race and, of course, post the overall standings. Hopefully this isn't too terrible!

The champagne moment

The first round of the new F1 season is in the books and so we have our first scoring update of the season. Nico Rosberg - the man only Icemanjee1 had the faith to select over Hamilton or Vettel - took victory on the track but it was Jezza13 who won round one here, amassing 115 points to best both Mayhem and TypingChicane by ten points. What probably made the difference were the points finishes by both Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean, the latter particularly important as Jezza13 was one of only two people (the other being TypingChicane) to select both Grosjean himself and the new Haas F1 team. If Haas are to be regular points scorers then those two could be the two to beat as the rest of us all went for Renault, who themselves briefly flirted with a top-10 finish before fading away as the race wore on. Schumacher forever#1 took the final step on the podium, narrowly missing out on joining the fun on the second step:

Jezza13 - 115Mayhem and TypingChicane - 105Schumacher forever#1 - 101

Because we can't all be winners

Elsewhere, Ferrari's strong start might be worrying the two participants - Coulthard's Chin and Mayhem - who opted not to select Kimi Raikkonen, instead picking his Finnish compatriot Valtteri Bottas. Whilst Kimi's DNF coupled with Bottas' recovery drive saw them gain four points on the rest this weekend, Kimi surely looks to have been the better selection for the season as a whole. Driver group 4 - Hulkenberg, Perez, Verstappen and Sainz - looks like it will be particularly competitive. Surprisingly(?) nobody selected Sainz, so it was mainly Max Verstappen who threatened a decent points haul before his race turned into a "all hail the mods joke", allowing a composed drive by Nico Hulkenberg to help him establish an early lead in that category. That also translated as good news for those who picked Force India over Toro Rosso in Team group 3. As we all went for Ricciardo over Kvyat the jokers in that category are going to be key, whilst McLaren failing to score a point (I wonder how often I'll be typing that line in these updates?) means nobody picked up any points from Driver group 5. Only 15 points separated Mayhem/TypingChicane in joint second right the way down to Black_Flag_11 so hopefully we'll have battles up and down the standings not just at each race, but across the season as a whole. Here's how those of us not spraying the champagne did:

Only one person was bold enough to deploy a joker at the first race of the weekend. Fountoukos13, perhaps banking on the sort of race that led to Nasr securing a debut points finish in 2015, used their Driver group 6 joker on Felipe 'Fred' Nasr. It was a move that never even threatened to work once the racing got underway as Nasr trailed home in 15th with only Pascal Wehrlein's Manor behind him on the track. With Romain Grosjean finishing in 6th, it could be that we've all already missed the best result to capitalise on as far as the joker for Driver group 6 goes. Bahrain is up next; will anyone follow Fountoukos13's lead and play an early joker or will we see people holding onto them for later in the year?

Spare a thought for...

Remmirath. Their 62 points weren't even half of what the top 3 scored, and that is in spite of being one of the few to plump for Grosjean. Being the only player to opt for Ferrari over Mercedes accounted for a large chunk of the points they missed out on. The one positive there is a Vettel - Raikkonen one-two would instantly give them at least 26 points over everybody except Black_Flag_11, who would only drop 16 points back thanks to joining Remmirath as the only other person to select Vettel. Look for Remmirath to do very well in the weekends Ferrari secure a strong result.

Obviously these are a reflection of the result for the race itself so there isn't much more to say here other than to congratulate Jezza13 on jumping out into an early lead. A sign of things to come or a false dawn? Let's find out in two weeks time!